Wireless telephones, such as mobile/cellular telephones, cordless telephones, and other consumer audio devices, such as mp3 players, are in widespread use. Often, such personal audio devices are capable of outputting two channels of audio, each channel to a respective transducer, wherein the transducers may be housed in a respective headphone adapted to engage with a listener's ear. In existing personal audio devices, processing and communication of audio signals to each of the transducers often assumes that each headphone is engaged with respective ears of the same listener. However, such assumptions may not be desirable in situations in which at least one of the headphones is not engaged with an ear of the listener (e.g., one headphone is engaged with an ear of a listener and another is not, both headphones are not engaged with the ears of any listeners, headphones are simultaneously engaged with ears of two different listeners, etc.).